Last night, I drove 82 miles north to Centralia, WA to meet up with my friend, Randy. Randy and I used to work in radio together and hadn't seen each other in about 15 years. I hadn't even talked to him in ages before he and another friend, Dale, recently called me to tell me a mutual friend of ours had passed away. Since I already had plans to come north for the holidays, we decided we should all get together and catch up. So I met Randy in Centralia and we drove together another 20 miles or so to Olympia, WA to meet Dale, who had driven down from Seattle. Randy called another old friend, Eric, en route and he and his wife came out and we all had dinner at a great pizza place up there. It was great to see everyone and rehash old memories and to hear how everyone had grown up over the years. I met Randy and Dale when I was 18 and look at us all now:

From left to right that's Eric, Randy, Dale and I. Dale still works in radio at KZOK in Seattle and Randy works in advertising.

On the way back to Centralia that night, in completely random conversation about TV, Randy mentioned something that had never occurred to me, and at first I thought he was bullshitting (until I checked IMDB on my iPhone). Am I the ONLY person who didn't realize that Michael Chiklis ("The Shield") is the same guy who played the father on "The Commish"? I mean, I actually used to watch "The Commish." So when Randy brought it up, I sort of thought, "Oh, they're both bald, so they must be the same actor?" I felt like a complete ass when I checked the internet and found that what he said was true. I'm usually the one who knows those random facts. I mean, why bother to watch "The Commish" ever if it's not going to benefit you in the future?